


The Fugitive Kind

by FiveDollarMixtape



Series: Inspiration, Repeat [2]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Brief Color, Brief Dawnstar, Brief kit abuse, But it's barely even mentioned, Darkpaw - Freeform, Goldentree, Rose - Freeform, Spirit World, like I say what happens but I don't really describe it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 19:48:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11043102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveDollarMixtape/pseuds/FiveDollarMixtape
Summary: When Darkpaw keeps accidentally wandering into the spirit world, she meets a cat named Rose who seems to do the exact opposite of whatever she says.





	The Fugitive Kind

**Author's Note:**

> Song- The Fugitive Kind by The Trigger Code

Befriending a cat with god-like powers that refused to listen to whatever she said wasn’t what Darkpaw had wanted to do with her life, but that was what happened.

 

She had first met the she-cat on her first day of training.  She was still on a high from the excitement of having her name changed from Darkkit to Darkpaw and from the excitement of meeting her mentor (a nice tom named Goldentree).  When Goldentree told her to stay in one place and listen to the sounds of their territory, she complied, not wanting to disappoint her mentor.  Bird song and wind filled her ears.  In her boredom, she noticed that everything looked and felt the slightest bit different- as if the world was lacking the brightness it had had a moment before.

 

“Aren’t you a pretty one,” a voice above her mewed, causing her to snap her head up to the source.  “Or, at least, you will be.”

 

The speaker was a pure white she-cat whose fur glowed in the dim world.  Green eyes were a stark contrast to the fur, but they stood out just as much.  Her fur looked feather soft, and even though it was short, it looked like it could keep an entire Clan warm.  She was perched on top of a thick branch, her tail and one of her forepaws hanging off of the ledge as she looked down at the apprentice.

 

“Who’re you?” Darkpaw asked, her eyes narrowed.  “Goldentree will chase you off the territory, you know! Especially if you’re a Deserter that got away!”

 

“Oh, is that his name?” the she-cat asked.  “Strange name.  But I don’t think Goldentree will be much of a problem.”

 

“What?” The apprentice turned her head to look at her mentor, but he was  _ gone _ .  There were no pawprints on the grass where he had been standing, and there was no rustling of the underbrush around her.  When she sniffed the air, she couldn’t detect even a trace of her mentor’s scent.

 

“Do you have a name as strange as Goldentree?” the white she-cat asked.  Turning her attention back to her, she noticed that she had rested her head on the forepaw still on the branch, but she was still looking down at her.  A hind leg had joined her forepaw in hanging off of the tree.

 

The dark pelted cat narrowed her eyes.  Was her name strange?  “...Darkpaw,” she told her.  Then, a new thought entered her mind, one that made her black fur stand on end and her blue eyes go round.  “What did you do to Goldentree?!” she nearly screeched.  This cat  _ had _ to be Deserter, especially if she hurt her mentor.

 

“I didn’t do anything to the tom,” the white she-cat meowed.  “Only a few cats can enter the spirit world.  You,  _ Darkpaw _ ,” she sounded like she was testing the name, “are one of a lucky few.”

 

“The what world?” Darkpaw asked.  Green eyes became a bit more serious as they started downwards. 

 

“What do you believe in?” she asked in return.

 

“StarClan,” she meowed like she was speaking to a newborn kit, because that’s the only thing that she  _ could _ have believed in.  “Where else would I go when I die?”

 

“Here,” the she-cat meowed.  “The spirit world is a large place, after all.  Most cats come here.”

 

Darkpaw’s fur fluffed with anger.  Was she saying that StarClan wasn’t real? “I’m going to join StarClan!” she growled.

 

“Oh, I don’t doubt that your…  _ StarClan  _ is real,” the she-cat meowed.  “There  _ are _ powerful and mysterious forces in the world, after all.”  She started purring.  “I should know, I’m one of them.”

 

The apprentice blinked up at the she-cat.  “What?”

 

“You know, I’m going to call you Dark,” the white she-cat meowed, ignoring her question.  “Darkpaw is a bit of a mouthful.”

 

“Darkpaw is my name.”

 

“And now Dark is your nickname!” Darkpaw narrowed her eyes at the she-cat’s purred statement.  “You know Dark, I like you,” she meowed.  

 

“Okay?”

 

The she-cat stared at her for a while, lifting her head.  “I think you’ll do fine.”  One of the apprentice’s ears folded backwards in confusion, but before she had a chance to ask for clarification the she-cat spoke again.  “I have powers, you know.”

 

The black she-cat’s ears perked.  “What kind of powers?” 

 

“All kinds,” she meowed.  

 

Darkpaw turned her eyes to the gray, cloudy sky.  “Could you make it sunny?”

 

“I could,” the she-cat meowed.  “But I won’t.”  After a few moment of silence, she spoke once more.  “My name is Rose, by the way.”  She slid all the way off of the branch, and before Darkpaw had the time to call out to her, the world filled with color again.

 

It rained for the next quarter moon, and Darkpaw had no one else to blame but Rose. 

 

The next time she met Rose, it was in the middle of camp.  She had been having trouble sleeping- both her nest and the apprentice’s den felt too confining, so she stood and left in hopes of fresh air.  When she placed her first paw out of the den, the colors dimmed.  Sitting in the center of camp was the pure white she-cat.  

 

_ “Rose?!” _ Darkpaw exclaimed.

 

“Hi, Dark!” she meowed, curling her tail around her paws.  

 

“What are you doing here?” The apprentice asked, but shook her head.  “Don’t answer that, you need to leave! If one of the other cats see you-”

 

“We’re  _ fine _ ,” Rose meowed, stressing the second word.  “Your cats can’t enter the spirit world.”

 

“My cats?” Darkpaw asked, confused with her wording.

 

“Well, you’re one of them, so that makes them your cats as far as I’m concerned,” Rose meowed.  “Stay for a while! You just missed High Moon.”

 

“What’s so special about moonhigh?” Darkpaw asked.  The other she-cat shrugged.

 

“Nothing, really,” she mewed.  “It gets interesting in a few hours.  But you can meet the rest of my cats!” 

 

“Your cats?” Darkpaw asked.  “Are you their leader, or just part of the group?”

 

“Both, neither, does it matter?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Come  _ on  _ Dark, it’s not important! I’m sure the rest of the cats would love to meet you.”

 

Darkpaw looked over at the camp entrance.  She wasn’t supposed to leave camp this late- StarClan, she wasn’t even supposed to be awake right now.  The smallest of things could make her a Deserter.  “I’ll pass.”

 

“Aww,” Rose complained.  “I’ll tell them you said hi, though.”

 

Darkpaw blinked, tilting her head.  “...Sure.”

 

“Well, I gotta go!” Rose meowed.  “It was nice seeing you, Dark!” The she-cat rose to her paws and padded slowly out of camp.

 

Darkpaw didn’t see Rose for a moon after that, but it wasn’t good timing when she did come back.  One of her Clanmates had just died (not that she was particularly close to the cat, but still) and she was supposed to be mourning.  The dimming of colors fit with her mood, but the brightness of her fur and her personality wasn’t what Darkpaw wanted then.

 

“What are you doing here?” Darkpaw growled.

 

“I came to see you!” Rose purred, sitting down so close that their fur brushed.  “That cat that died didn’t end up in the spirit world.  I guess that StarClan  _ is _ real.”  She had a sour look on her face as she said it.

 

“Is that a bad thing?” the apprentice asked, annoyance in her voice.

 

“For me it is.”

 

Darkpaw’s fur fluffed with anger at the she-cat’s low concern with StarClan.  “Well, what are you doing in the spirit world?” she almost snarled.

 

“I was born here.”

 

“Then why don’t you die and find out where you’ll go!” Darkpaw told her.

 

Teasingly, Rose got onto four paws and crouched.  She stalked across the ground, her belly fur brushing against the forest floor.  “Oh, Reapers won’t come near me,” she meowed.  “They’re too scared of what I can do.”

 

Darkpaw was too angry to ask what Reapers were, and she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to know.  She rose to her paws and stomped away from Rose, ignoring her call of  _ “See you soon, Dark!” _  Only once she had crossed half of the territory did she escape the spirit world.

 

Rose came to her once when she was hunting, sitting patiently where her prey would have been, and being toppled over and pinned as a result.  She didn’t growl, or snarl, or even try to throw her off.  She just smiled up at her with a friendly greeting.

 

Darkpaw sighed.  “Hello, Rose.  Why are you interrupting my hunting?”

 

“A cat that I knew died,” Rose meowed, still smiling.  “He didn’t come to the spirit world, either.”

 

Darkpaw’s eyes narrowed, not getting off of the she-cat.  “Then shouldn’t you be sad? Or crying?”

 

“I don’t cry!” Darkpaw felt an annoying warmth in her eyes, but her vision stayed clear.  With another sigh, she got off of the white cat.  “You know,” Rose meowed, not standing but keeping her green eyes on Darkpaw, “I’ve been wondering if you’ll come to the spirit world or not.”

 

“I won’t,” Darkpaw meowed.  “I’m a Clan cat.  I’ll go to StarClan, like all other Clan cats.”

 

Rose pawed at the air.  “I guess I’ll be having a custody battle then.”  She turned her green eyes back to the sky.  “You know, Dark, it turns out it was right when I said you’d grow up to be pretty.”

 

Darkpaw’s blue eyes widened.  She still wasn’t fully grown yet, but when she had met Rose she was much smaller, and the areas around her ears, tail, and paws were still covered in kit fluff.  Her blue eyes had grown darker, matching her black as night pelt, and her fur was now at a constant smooth and sleek texture.  “Shut up,” she grumbled, feeling her ears warm.

 

“Take a compliment!” Rose purred.  “Well, it looks like I should be going now,” she added, rolling over and onto her paws gracefully.  “Enjoy not crying anymore!” 

 

“What?” Darkpaw asked, but she didn’t get a response before the color returned.  The warmth that was invading her eyes left.

 

Goldentree made a good mentor.  He wasn’t harsh or strict, but he made sure that Darkpaw had learned everything she could as best as she could.  Dying in battle wasn’t something that the apprentice could imagine happening to him- she always pictured him as the type of cat that would easily make it to become an Elder, yet here she was at his vigil.  

 

Darkpaw hadn’t cried.  Whatever had happened to her, and she could only blame Rose, had stuck.  When color faded in her world again, when she looked up to see Rose sitting across from her, she felt an overwhelming sadness and an urge to cry.

 

“This is Goldentree?” she asked.  Darkpaw nodded, looking down at the body.

 

“He was my mentor,” her voice was rough from both disuse and sadness.  “He taught me everything I know about being a warrior.”

 

Rose let out a hum.  “He’s not in the spirit world, so he must be in StarClan.  Do you want me to fight for him to be here?”

 

Darkpaw shook her head, but a new question entered her mind.  “Why do things like this happen, Rose?”

 

The other she-cat shook her head.  “I don’t know.”  

 

Her new mentor was a calm and rational she-cat named Bluewater.  An outbreak of whitecough started the day after Goldentree was buried, and almost half the Clan died from greencough.  Darkpaw could only blame Rose.

 

She hadn’t noticed the color leaving the world this time, but when she did she saw Rose and many other cats.  When Rose spotted her, she leapt to her paws and rushed towards her.  “This is her!” she cheered.  “This is Dark!”

 

“Dark _ paw _ ,” she corrected.

 

“Sorry,” a brown tom with hazel eyes spoke, “but if Rose is calling you Dark, then you’re Dark.”

 

Darkpaw narrowed her eyes, glaring at Rose.  The white she-cat ignored it.  “These are the cats I wanted you to meet!” she meowed.  “There are Moon, Crate, Stone, Timber, Fire, Iron, Candle, Glass, Star, Color, Sweet, Moss, Chip, Ace…” the names went on and on.  They started swirling around in Darkpaw’s head, and she forgot a name as soon as Rose said a new one.  “Well, you’ll meet all of them soon enough,” Rose finished.

 

Darkpaw looked out at the crowd of cats.  “So, is Rose your leader, or what?”

 

A large, gray tom shrugged his broad shoulders.  “I mean, when we’re all together, yeah,” he meowed.  “I’m Crate, by the way.”

 

“Go on Dark, socialize!” Rose urged, shoving her forwards with her forepaws.  “You  _ are _ Fugitive Kind, after all!”

 

“I’m what?” Darkpaw asked, turning her head to look at the white she-cat.

 

“That’s what Rose calls us,” a she-cat’s voice meowed.  “She decides who’s one of us and who isn’t.”

 

“So you’re just going to rip me away from StarClan?” Darkpaw growled.  A small cough came from in front of Darkpaw, and she turned her head to glare at the source.  The tortishell she-cat wasn’t affected, though.  

 

“Uh, I’m Color,” she began.  “But I was Colorpaw.”

 

Darkpaw’s eyes widened.  “You’re a Clan cat?”

 

“I  _ was _ a Clan cat,” she meowed in her soft voice.  “Now I’m part of Fugitive Kind.”  Nervously, she looked past Darkpaw and towards Rose.  “Can I talk to Dark for a bit?” 

 

“Feel free!” Rose’s cheery voice meowed.  Colorpaw stood, flicking her tail in an indication for Darkpaw to follow her.  With a bound, she easily caught up to the other apprentice.  The two weaved through the cats, leaving the group behind.

 

“I was part of a Clan called SnowClan,” Colorpaw meowed.  “We lived up North, where prey was scarce and hard to catch.  The Elders used to say that it snowed nine moons of the year, and hailed the other three.  I froze to death after I fell into a river while hunting, but I died catching the squirrel, because every piece of prey was important to us.  Cats, usually apprentices, were punished for not catching anything.

 

“When StarClan came to bring me to join them, Rose intervened.”

 

“Could you go into the spirit world, too?” Darkpaw asked.  Colorpaw nodded.  

 

“Rose said that I shouldn’t go join some boring group of cats, not when Fugitive Kind had so much fun.  The StarClan cat, my mother, Coldberry, told me that I had died for the Clan and that I should go find my place of honor waiting for me in StarClan.  Rose attacked Coldberry, telling me… something.  I’m not really sure what it was.”

 

“Do you remember it?” Darkpaw turned her head to look at the she-cat.  Colorpaw nodded, her amber eyes facing ahead of her.

 

“She said that when cats ate, we left bones and teeth behind.  She said that we did that so the the fugitive kind could follow their kind.”

 

“And that convinced you to join her?” Darkpaw asked.  

 

Colorpaw shook her head.  “I joined because she was fighting for me.  Eventually, when more StarClan cats came to help bring me to them, Fugitive Kind came and helped her.  And because I wanted to get away from a Clan that punished cats for not being able to find prey.”  Colorpaw looked up at Darkpaw.  “What would you leave StarClan behind for?”

 

Darkpaw thought, long and carefully.  “I don’t know.”

 

Colorpaw-  _ Color, _ she corrected herself, only purred.  “You’ll find out soon.”  

 

The next day, a litter of three kits were dragged into camp by the dawn patrol.  “Where’s Dawnstar?” one warrior yowled, making the kits look even more frightened then they already were.

 

“We weren’t Deserting, I swear!” One she-cat cried, tears streaking down her face.

 

“We just wanted to see what the territory looked like!” 

 

“Shut up, Deserters!” an apprentice growled.

 

“Quiet, Hushpaw,” the last cat snarled.  “An apprentice will never give orders, not even to a kit.”

 

Hushpaw dipped her head in respect to the warrior, but anger still caused her ears to twitch back and forth.  Dawnstar, a cream tom with dark eyes, approached the patrol.

 

“What’s this I hear about Deserters?” he asked, a cold look in his eyes.

 

The first warrior dipped his head to the leader.  “We found these kits wandering the territory, close to the border.”

 

With a soft sigh, Dawnstar shook his head.  “As much as I hate to do this, Deserters must be punished.  Even if they’re only kits.”  He lifted a paw and unsheathed long and sharp claws.  The kits were shaking, and they cried out in pain when Dawnstar made a nick in their ears.

 

The nick was a sign of the Deserters.  More than half of the Clan carried a nick, and Darkpaw was thankful she wasn’t one of them.

 

_ “What would you leave StarClan behind for?” _ Color had asked her.

 

With a start, Darkpaw realized that the punishment for Deserters wasn’t normal.  Kits shouldn’t be given scars that would mark them as lower-tier cats for the rest of their lives, but that was the case for most of the Deserters.  Leaving the Clan, or just breaking the Warrior Code could classify you as a Deserter.  On patrols, cats were told to watch equally for invaders and Deserters.

 

Darkpaw died from drowning.  She had traveled outside of Clan borders in the spirit world, and she hadn’t realized that until color had returned.  Being outside of Clan borders was enough to mark her as a Deserter, so she ran as fast as she could.  She hadn’t thought that jumping into the gorge would be a bad idea until she had done it.

 

When Goldentree came to bring her to StarClan, she kindly refused.  Instead, her and her first mentor had spoken about everything from how prey was running to how she had wandered into the spirit world on her first day of training and met a friend until Rose came to bring her to Fugitive Kind.


End file.
